Firms That Work Kelp Beds Face Financially Heavy Seas

The massive sewage spill off Point Loma threatens catastrophe for several local businesses whose livelihoods are tied to giant offshore kelp beds.

Already, one small but specialized enterprise has been hard-hit by the spill: divers’ plucking of sea urchins to be turned into sushi.

“We’re not buying from off Point Loma until this thing is cleared,” said Dave Rudie, spokesman for Catalina Offshore Products, which processes the divers’ catch for market in the United States and Japan.

Marine biologists worry that the environmentally sensitive kelp beds could be damaged if the spill is not quickly contained, and sport-fishing companies fear that fish in the area could be declared unfit for consumption.

Most San Diegans come into contact with kelp only after storms wash strands of the plants onto local beaches. Catalina Offshore is one of a handful of local companies whose economic health is closely tied to the state-owned kelp beds that dot the Pacific Ocean between San Diego and Monterey.

Damage to the kelp beds also would hurt San Diego’s financially struggling sport-fishing fleet, which each day sends boats on half-day trips to the nutrient-rich beds that serve as breeding grounds for a variety of fish species.

The spill could also endanger the economic health of a number of small companies and individuals who harvest lobsters, sea cucumbers and abalone, biologists said.

Kelco, a San Diego-based division of Merck & Co. that harvests most of the more than 100,000 tons of kelp taken here each year, is “closely monitoring” the spill, according to Kelco spokesman Steve Zapoticzny. The company’s bay-front processing plant extracts algin, a chemical byproduct that improves the consistency of food products, stabilizes printing pastes and is used to manufacture fine paper.